As someone living with more than 10 cats, I think I can self-proclaim myself as a cat-lady.
I have no idea where my obsession for these majestic felines came from but it’s grown to a point where I identify it as a part of my personality. It’s come to a point where it’s not enough that I care for cats a lot in real life; I constantly am on the hunt to do the same virtually.
So I’ve been on a long quest to discover the best cat free-to-play (because I’m a cheapskate) mobile games out there that can satisfy my inner obsessions. Here are 6 games that don’t even cost you a dime to download for your mobile specifically to help cater to your cat-obsessed whims on-the-go.
1) Neko Atsume
With a live-action movie releasing in a few months, I’m sure most of you have at least heard or seen this game before.
Neko Atsume is a free-to-play mobile game developed by Japanese publishers, Hit Point. The main aim of this game is pretty simple: deck out your virtual yard with many cat-related items so strays can pop by and interact with it. When they’re in your particular space, you can opt to take picture of them for your virtual album and the end goal is to fill it up with as many cat photos as possible.
So basically what the camera roll of every cat owner looks like? You can emulate that in this game.
The more that these strays come to visit your yard, the stronger your bond with them becomes. These cats know their manners though, they’ll gladly reward your care with presents of gold or silver fish which is the currency you use to trade for toys and better food that attracts more (or rarer) cats.
The game mechanics are very simple but it’s easy to get addicted. The adorable art style gets you hooked on filling up your yard and photo album with all the cats possible (there are 59 currently available in-game). It’s always nice to load up the game and see which cat had been gracious enough to pay you a visit.
Especially the rare ones. My personal favourites are Sapphire & Jeeves, the most adorable cat couple you’ll ever see.
And Xerxes IX (Prince or Purinsu-san). Though he’s one of the more common sights among the rare breeds, just looking at his design is enough to explain why I’m so infatuated with him.
So if you’re looking for a game that will fulfill all your cat lady dreams without you ever needing to actually physically care for one, you can download this game at the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
2) Fancy Cats
If you’re looking for a game similar to the previous one, this is a good option.
Fancy Cats isn’t as simple as Neko Atsume however. It’s a mish-mash of a few different game genres with cat collecting and playing dress-up being the core theme. The end goal here is to amass a huge army of adorable yet personable cats and basically pimp them out with tiny clothes and accessories such as fake wings and many unique hats.
The Fancy Cats’ Match 3 mini-games lets you win gold and gems along with fish that can be fed to your hungry kitties, which helps them level up. If you keep them well-fed and dressed, they even reward you with gifts.
With each game, you can accumulated stars that increase your level which in turn unlocks more accessories and outfits. As with Neko Atsume, you get rewarded by keeping your cats happy through coins and gems which are used to buy all their adorable outfits in store.
One thing I really liked is also how they provide fun little facts about cats in the loading screens.
You can download this game for free at the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
3) KleptoCats
Okay, this might start to get repetitive but here’s another cat-collecting game (I’m a hoarder okay, don’t judge).
KleptoCats (Yes, it’s a funny take on “Kleptocrats”) is a cat-collecting game from HyperBeard Games because having the previous two on your phone just isn’t enough.
I’ll be honest. This one does lack substance compared to the previous two. How the game starts is by having you in an empty room with a single cat companion that has a talent for stealing things. You send the cat out and wait for it to come back with a quirky item that automatically decorates your apartment.
Which is basically the extent of what KleptoCats is about.
Compared to other games of similar mechanics, KleptoCats heavily lack interactions with the kitties (or the room you keep them in), and “playing” the game amounts to a lot of waiting and watching videos for free coins.
There is an option to pet your cats to increase their happiness meter, though doing so doesn’t seem to shorten the amount of time it takes for them to find things, nor does it affect the quality of the goods they do find.
You get a wide variety of designs for the KleptoCats and they do perform background antics but there’s nothing else you can really do with them. Also note that any accessories you buy for your cats are equipped on all of them, so you can’t individualize their style. Kitty communism at its finest.
If you don’t mind watching ads for coins and just feeling satisfied from hoarding all these cats, you can download this game for free at the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
4) Nom Cat
Alright, I hear you. Enough with the hoarding-style games. So here’s something a little different yet crazily addictive.
Nom Cat is a free-to-play mobile game with a simple mission of helping your favorite cats eat their dinner while stopping them from accidentally eating the “bombs” mixed in with their food.
Loading the game, you’ll have two furry friends with fishes mixed with bombs thrown up in the air and raining down into their open mouths. What you have to do is help their mouths open and close by tapping the screen so they don’t miss any fish but miss out on accidentally eating the bombs.
It’s easy for this type of game to get frustrating, especially when the bombs tend to rain down faster. But the cute cats in Nom Cat make up for it. Oh, and you can even get to feed iconic cats such as Nyan Cat, Garfield and Grumpy Cat, which you can unlock.
So if you’re in the mood for something simple but filled with tons of cats you’d recognise immediately, you can download this game at the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
5) Pakka Pets Village
This may be cheating slightly because it isn’t exclusively about cats but hey, the cats that are in this game are flipping adorable.
Pakka Pets Village brings you back to your Tamagotchi days where you can hatch and evolve a cute pet in this virtual pet game. There are more than 60 pets to find so you get a wide variety of animals to pick from such as dogs, rabbits, hamsters and yes, cats.
Once you’ve picked an egg, you take care of it until it hatches into a baby digitalised pet which you then focus on raising. How this is done is by playing games to win prizes for your pets, evolving them into bigger forms, decorating their houses with the most adorable furniture ever and helping it grow enough to explore the Pakka World outside.
As with the Tamagotchis, your Pakka Pets will eat, poop, sleep, and live their Pakka life even when you’re away. How it grows depends on how much care you put into it. The Pakka Pets you discover are based on how you play so if you’re hunting for the rarer ones, you’d need to check up often to give your virtual pets the attention they want.
For a very straightforward game, there’s quite a lot that can be done. The Pakka Town offers quests that allows you to unlock new areas and make friends for your pets. You can even purchase treats for your pets or cook “magic food” for them by heading to the store or working with Chef Mitts (that name though).
So if you’re leaning to find something that can bring nostalgia yet done at your own pace, you can download this game at the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
6) The Battle Cats
I had to save the best for last.
Let me just lead into this game with an intro the game provides when you load up the title screen.
“In 2012, USA launched a secret proejct. To wake up Japanese people from being too peaceful, their new weapon was sent into Japan. Code name “Battle Cats” Japanese people are too kind and nice to use cruelty weapons to the Battle Cats… By the way, I Saw the developer of the Battle Cats was interviewed on TV… I know, it’s insane.”
[Editor’s Note: We didn’t make any mistakes for editing on this one, that’s the actual intro.]
Ah yes, the Engrish just makes it even better.
The Battle Cats is at times superfluous, crazy, silly and doesn’t always take itself seriously.
It’s basically a tower defense game but with a few twists. The main theme does involve cats but you’re also focusing on dispatching units from a single tower more than upgrading the structure itself. You can choose to improve your tower, but the points you earn are mainly spent to upgrade your troops.
Oh, and your troops are all cats.
Each level starts off with your tower and a slowly increasing wallet. The idea here is the more you earn, the more cat troops you can send out. So more money, more cats, and you win faster.
Your enemy tower across you sends troops as well. There’ll be a point in the game when you can’t keep up with the enemy onslaught so you can retreat to earn more experience from previous levels.
Or if you’re willing to cough up some actual money for in-app purchases, you can increase your troops’ stats quicker but you’d have to be the most impatient million-dillionaire to take shortcuts in a game gushing with whimsy about war-driven cats.
There isn’t much depth to this game with most of the levels being the same only with different backgrounds and enemy towers (the Sapporo beer tower was the best IMHO), but I did spend countless hours on it despite that.
If you’re looking for a cat game with more action yet retaining the adorable kitty factor, you can download this game at the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
So, those are my recommendations that have really enriched my cat-loving life. If you have any others, do leave them in the comments below.
Feature Image Credit: techweez.com
